Q&A with the bump-bashing Snyderman siblings

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April 24, 2008

The Snyderman siblings — — Kayla, 19, and Reed, 17 — are hilarious. They are extremely tight, and have been chasing each other around the ski hill since they were little tykes. It wasn’t clear who was chasing whom, but last December at Sun Valley — where their family vacations — Kayla and Reed dressed up in 1980s one-piece ski suits and busted old-school tricks like daffys and back scratchers while be-bopping down moguls runs. The duo was having so much fun, and that’s the way the Snydermans like to roll. These two mogul meisters are ones to watch. Kayla is on the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team, and had such a stellar season this year with two third-place World Cup podiums that she was promoted from the C team to the A team. She’s working on a new trick and hopes to be standing on the top of a podium next season. Brother Reed dominated at the Junior Olympics, winning both singles and duals titles and is vying for a spot on the U.S. team. When the Massachusetts kids aren’t competing, they are studying. Kayla is at Dartmouth College studying to become an environmental lawyer or writer, or both, she said. Reed is in high school in his home state but often trains in Utah. In the Q&A below, Ski Racing caught up with the Snydermans at the U.S. Freestyle Championships in March at Deer Valley, Utah, where Kayla finished second in duals and Reed, however, had some bad luck and didn’t qualify for either contest. In their banter, you can tell these two siblings are super supportive of each other and enjoy laughing as much as possible. Don’t let that insouciance fool you. The Snydermans are hard workers: They just make playtime into their work and enjoy every minute of it.

THE SNYDERMAN SIBLINGS — Kayla, 19, and Reed, 17 — are hilarious. They are extremely tight, and have been chasing each other around the ski hill since they were little tykes. It wasn’t clear who was chasing whom, but last December at Sun Valley — where their family vacations — Kayla and Reed dressed up in 1980s one-piece ski suits and busted old-school tricks like daffys and back scratchers while be-bopping down moguls runs. The duo was having so much fun, and that’s the way the Snydermans like to roll. These two mogul meisters are ones to watch. Kayla is on the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team, and had such a stellar season this year with two third-place World Cup podiums that she was promoted from the C team to the A team. She’s working on a new trick and hopes to be standing on the top of a podium next season. Brother Reed dominated at the Junior Olympics, winning both singles and duals titles and is vying for a spot on the U.S. team. When the Massachusetts kids aren’t competing, they are studying. Kayla is at Dartmouth College studying to become an environmental lawyer or writer, or both, she said. Reed is in high school in his home state but often trains in Utah. In the Q&A below, Ski Racing caught up with the Snydermans at the U.S. Freestyle Championships at Deer Valley, Utah, where Kayla finished second in duals and Reed, however, had some bad luck and didn’t qualify for either contest. In their banter, you can tell these two siblings are super supportive of each other and enjoy laughing as much as possible. Don’t let that insouciance fool you. The Snydermans are hard workers: They just make playtime into their work and enjoy every minute of it.

Ski Racing: At Sun Valley, was that the first time you two dressed in onesies and skied like old-school bumpers?Kayla: Yeah. We might do it this spring back East.Reed: No, we should do it tomorrow, K. Oh wait, you’d have to wear the suit [Author’s note: The next day she was competing in duals, and the onesy wasn’t official].Kayla: We’ll go to Stowe some weekend and probably wear them.

SR: Do you guys bring the suits on the road with you?Reed: Yeah, it’s down at Snowbird. I got it. Kayla: I have it. No, I [don’t bring it on tour] but I brought it back here and it’s just at my house.

SR: Which one of you chased the other around when you were growing up?Reed: She was totally chasing me — you can’t deny it!Kayla: He would do a backflip and I was like, ‘I want to try that.’ Reed: The first time I got her to do a backflip, I built a jump behind this old ski shop in New Hampshire and said, ‘OK, come on Kayla, do it!’ She was like, ‘All right’ and then just took one to her face. But you know, she got back up and did it again and now look where she’s at.

SR: Now when you go out, Kayla, do you still chase Reed around?Kayla: Yeah pretty much. Especially freeskiing, he knows where all of the good cliffs are. I follow him sometimes.

SR: So Reed, you have been training out here in Utah this winter.Reed: I’ve been at Snowbird a lot. It’s been sick. I was training with Wasatch [Freestyle Ski Team] around Christmas time. We had so much snow, face shots every other day.

SR: So making the moguls course was pretty tricky?Reed: Yeah! Yeah! One day we went to training and saw the moguls course and saw so much snow on it, and we said, ‘Let’s just go freeskiing.’

SR: Reed, tell me about your JO experience this season.Reed: JOs was really sick, the course was really nice but it had some tough elements to it. There were like 85 girls and 90 guys or something so it was getting super deep and gnarly after the airs, but I ended up laying it down and doing what I could do and ended up winning moguls singles and duals so I was psyched about that for sure. … The finals dual was one of the most amazing duals. I saw it on video and other people were telling me that it was so close, so sick.

SR: So, Reed, looking to get a spot on the U.S. team?Reed: Hopefully soon.Kayla: I hope so. It would be awesome! Actually the same day that he won JOs, I was at Sweden at a World Cup and heard about it in the morning and that was one of my best performances of the year. [Author’s note: She placed third.] I was so psyched! Reed: We do well together. It’s weird, I’ll do well and then she’ll do well or she’ll do well and then I’ll do well.

SR: Kayla, you also had a really solid season. Tell me about that.Kayla: I had a really good season. I had two podiums on the World Cup tour, one in Lake Placid and one in Sweden in duals. So that was great, super exciting. It was my first year on the tour. I’m on the A team now.

SR: What’s your goal for next year, then?Kayla: I’d really like to be able to do a full in the bumps. No one is doing them [on the girls side]. I’ve started to do them on snow a little bit and think it’s a realistic goal. That’s my main goal. I’d like to wi
n a World Cup. That would be sweet. So I’m excited for next year.

SR: What else do you want to tell the world?Reed: I don’t know, what wouldn’t we want to tell them?